Method and means for stripping fibrous plants.



J. P. CLULEY.

METHOD AND MEANS FOR STRIPPING FIBROUS PLANTS.

APPLICATION FILED MAYZZ, 1911.

1,134,514. Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHBET l.

J. P. CLULEY.

METHODAND MEANS FOR STRIPPING FIB ROUS PLANTS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 22, 1911.

LEEQfiEQ Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

THE NORRIS PETERS- CO PhIGTO-L TH' HMSHHF' QIY. F C

nnrrnsn STATES PATENT orrron.

JOHN P. CLULEY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

METHOD AND MEANS FOR STRIPPING FIBROUS PLANTS.

Application filed May 22, 1911.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN P. CLULEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Methods and Means for Stripping Fibrous Plants, of which the following is a specification.

Heretofore the shive or woody pith of flax, hemp and other fibrous plants has been removed by crushing and hackling the stalks but this has involved breaking the fiber to a considerable extent and thereby lessening its value. It is desirable to preserve the fiber in its full length but the methods of removing the shive heretofore practised have invariably involved breaking and dividing the fiber to a very considerable extent into irregular lengths.

The object of this invention is to loosen the shive from the fiber of fibrous plants and to remove the greater portion, if not the whole, of the shive without injury to the fiber.

With these ends in view my invention contemplates first crushing the stalks in the sense of flattening them, and then causing the flattened stalks to travel in a tortuous path over bending rolls, thereby bending the flattened stalks alternately in opposite directions but without scraping or fracturing the fiber. The flattening operation serves to prepare the stalk for the bending operation by flattening the tubular structure of the stalk and the bending operation breaks the shive into short lengths and separates it from the fiber. Owing to the delicacy of the fiber it may be that there will be some slight fracture thereof in the several operations, and, hence for clearness of disclosure I desire to have it understood that when I say the shive is removed without injuring the fiber I mean that the fiber is uninjured in the commercial rather than the strict literal sense. lVhile the greater portion of the shive will be entirely removed from the fiber during these operations some pieces may re main engaged or entangled with the fiber but these will comprise a very small proportion of the whole and they will be removed in handling the fiber or by shaking it.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating a machine which may be employed for practising my invention Figure 1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal central sectional View; Fig. 3 is a top plan view with Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 6, 1.915.

Serial No. 628,882.

the upper carrier belt broken away to disclose the bending rolls; Fig. t is a transverse sectional view on the line li of Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is a detail diagrammatic view showing the arrangement of the bending rolls and the position of the carrier belts.

Referring to the drawings in which like numerals of reference denote corresponding parts in the several figures, 6 designates a frame and 7 and 8 two belt conveyers which are trained on the receiving rolls 9, discharge rolls 10 and bending rolls 11. The receiving and discharge rolls are mounted on shafts 9, 10, which are journaled in the sides of the frame. Sprocket wheels 12 and 13 are mounted on the lower shafts 9, 10, at one side of the frame, and a sprocket chain 14 is trained on said sprocket wheels. At the other side of the frame the two shafts 9 carry intermeshing gears 15 and the two shafts 10 carry intermeshing gears 16 so that all of the rolls 9 and 10 will travel at the same rate of speed and move the belt conveyers at the same rate of speed also. One of the roll shafts, preferably the lower shaft 9, carries a belt pulley 17 whereby power is applied to the machine.

The bending rolls 11 are arranged in staggered relation between the receiving and discharge rolls and preferably adjacent to the discharge rolls for a reason hereafter described. One of these rolls, preferably the intermediate roll 11, is mounted at its ends in bearing blocks 18 which are guided in openings 19 in the side of the frame. These blocks and the roll 11 are adjustable vertically to take up slack in the conveyers, and adjust the tension thereof. The blocks are carried by vertical rods 20 which are guided in brackets 21 on the sides of the frame and have their upper ends screwthreaded to receive the nuts 22 arranged to bear on the brackets. By adjusting the nuts the roll 11 can be moved up or down to adjust the conveyer belts to the proper tension.

A pair of flattening rolls 23 is arranged in front of the receiving rolls, and the lower flattening roll is preferably made adjustable relative to the upper flattening roll. The upper flattening roll is mounted on a shaft 23 which is journaled in the sides of the frame and carries a gear 24- on one end which meshes with an idle gear 25 in turn meshing with a gear 26 on the upper receiving roll shaft 9 (Fig. 1). The lower flattening roll is mounted upon a shaft 27, the ends of which are supported on yielding bearings 28 at the sides of the frame. This" shaft 27 carries a gear 29 which meshes with the gear 24 so that bothcrushing rolls will travel at the same rateof speed I 1 The receiving rolls 9 are separated each other, as shown in Fig. 2, so that the conveyer belts will not come in contact until they approach the first bending roll and the I distance between the flattening rolls and the point where the stalks will be gripped by the conveyer'belts is greater than the length of the stalk. The receiving, discharge and bending rolls are geared to travel at a higher rate of speed than the flattening rolls. The conveyer belts engage the stalks as they comefrom the flattening rolls and exert suflicient pull on the stalks while still engaged by the flattening rolls to straighten the stalks without breaking them because,

as before stated, the gripping point of the conveyer belts is at a greaterdistance from the flattening rolls than the length of the stalks.

the stalks before they are subjected to the bendin o eration and this strai htenin is b C b 1 accomplished without manual manipulation and without injury to the stalks.

The machine which I have described "em bodies the essential elements for practising myimproved method but it will be understood that the form, proportion and particular arrangement of parts may be varied in many ways without departing from the sp rit or sacrificing the advantages of the invention. 7

In practice the stalks are fed to the'flattoning rolls and they pass between these rolls and in between the conveyer belts. The

latter engage the stalks sufiicientlyto pull them into a'straight position lengthwise of the machine but without gripping the stalks and without exerting SufllClQIlt force to break or injure the stalks which'are still gripped by the flattening rolls. In their passage between the flattening rolls the tubular structure of the stalks is crushed sufficiently to flatten them and this prepares the stalks to stand the reverse bendingoperations to break up and separate the shive viously prepared in the flattening operation.

The stalks are not subjected to any scraping action as they pass through the machine,

which would have a tendency to break the} fiber. The number of bending rollsmay 'ner shown in the drawings.

from

Thus I provide for straightening sections without injury to the fiber.

vbe varied as found desirable but it is now be lievedthat the best results will be obtained with five rolls arranged in or about the manbending operation the shive is not only broken and separated from the fiber but-this separation is usually suflicient to wholly disconnect the brokenshiye from the fiber so that it will drop away from the fiber after the treated stalks leave the conveyer at the discharge rolls.

will be readily separated therefrom in handling or by shaking bundles of the fiber.

diagrammatically the two conveyer belts7,

8 and'the material 30 passing therethrough. i

It will be noted that the bending operation to which the stalks are subjected is distinctly different from the operation to" which they. would be subjected between in- During the But if any of the broken shive remains intermingled with the fiber" -after being discharged from the machineit I .1180 In Fig; 5' of the drawing I have shown termeshing corrugated rolls.- In the latter case the stalks' are bent at theapex of each corrugation in opposite directions at a distinct angle the same as if a stalk is bent over, a sharp edge or by grasping it with the two hands and thenfbending it. The result of such an operation is to stretchand break the fiber to an extentfdependmg upon the angularity of the bend and this is the general method which has been practised commer cially heretofore. does not contemplatesuch an angular bend of the stalks but on the contrary it simply" involves propelling the stalks under constant and equal pressure in opposite directions over a plurality of curved surfacesar- 5 My bending operation;-

ranged in staggered relation so. that at n03? time is there SLllllClGIlt strain or stretching of the fiber to, producefracture. This alternate bending of the stalks in opposite directions under pressure breaks the brittle shive from which the fiber has been loosened but does not injure the fiber. V

' It is importantthat the stalks should not be gripped by the conveyer belts before they leave the flattening rolls for this might break the stalks. But with the arrangement I I illustrated in the drawingsiwhereby the conveyer belts exercis a pulling action on the stalks, without gripping them, while the stalks are still gripped by the flattening rollsI provide for-straightening the stalks before they 'aresubjected to the bending op eration; The stalk-s are carried by theconveyer'belts in a tortuous path under pressure without pulling them lengthwise and i this effectually divides the shive into small The flattening rolls also serveztOremoviethe seeds from the stalks. Thus I provide a simple method and means for stripping the fiber from the stalks of fibrous plant's, particularly flax and hemp, l'without injury' to the fiber, and, as before stated, this is especially important commercially because it is desirable to preserve the full length of the fiber.

I claim:

1. In a machine for treating the stalks of fibrous plants to separate and remove the shive or woody pith from the fiber without injuring the fiber, the combination of a pair of crushing rolls to flatten the stalks, a pair of conveyer belts to receive and carry the flattened stalks therebetween, a plurality of bending rolls arranged in staggered position and adjacent relation over which the belts travel, said belts being arranged to engage the stalks as they emerge from between the flattening rolls but not to grip the stalks until after they have left the flattening rolls, and means for operating said belts at a higher rate of speed than the flattening rolls.

2. In a machine for treating the stalks of fibrous plants to separate and remove the shive or woody pith from the fiber without injuring the fiber, the combination of a pair of crushing rolls to flatten the stalks, one of said rolls being mounted to yield relative to the other roll, a pair of conveyer belts arranged to receive and carry the stalks therebetween, a plurality of bending rolls arranged in staggered position and adjacent relation over which the belts travel in a tortuous path, said belts being separated from each other adjacent to the flattening rolls to engage the stalks while still gripped by the flattening rolls and exert a gentle pull thereon to straighten the stalks and said belts coming together to grip the stalks as they approach the first flattening roll over which they travel with the belts.

8. In a machine for treating the stalks of fibrous plants to separate and remove the shive or woody pith from the fiber without injuring the fiber, the combination of a pair of crushing rolls adapted to flatten the stalks, a pair of belts, a plurality of bending rolls over which said belts are arranged to travel in unison to bend the stalks, a pair of guiding'rolls spaced apart over which said belts travel, said guiding rolls being arranged to separate the said belts adjacent the crushing rolls so that the said belts will engage the flattened stalks at their ends and draw them into straight parallel relation before the said stalks reach the bending rolls and become firmly grasped by the rolls.

4. In a machine for treating the stalks of fibrous plants to separate and remove the shive or woody pith from the fiber without injuring the fiber, the combination of a pair of crushing rolls adapted to flatten the stalks, a pair of belts, a plurality of bending rolls over which said belts are arranged to travel in unison to bend the stalks, a pair of guiding rolls spaced apart over which s aid belts travel, said guiding rolls being arranged to separate the said belts adjacent the crushing rolls so that the said belts will co-act with the crushing rolls by grasping the flattened stalks at their ends while the said stalks are still engaged with the crushing rolls to straighten the same and arrange them in parallel relation before they reach the bending rolls.

5. The hereindescribed method of stripping stalks of fibrous plants to separate and remove the shive or woody pith from the fiber without injuring the fiber which consists in subjecting the stalks to a flattening operation without bending the stalks, loosely engaging one end of each of the stalks While the other end is still undergoing the flattening operation, gradually gripping said loosely engaged ends and subjecting said stalks to an increasing tension whereby the stalks are straightened, arranging the stalks in separate parallel relation to each other, breaking the flattened pith by alternately bending the stalks continuously in both clirections from their normal longitudinal axes, the bends being circular arcs of sufficient radius to prevent breaking of the fiber.

JOHN P. CLULEY.

Witnesses VVM. O. BELT, M. A. KIDDIE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

